Sublime
by superlazygirl
Summary: A series of drabbles about everyone's favorite spirit, Koh the Face Stealer.
1. Purgatory

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. It owns me.

**SUBLIME**

superlazygirl

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_1 – Purgatory_

The wisdom of the sages teaches that human souls change bodies like an actor changing his costume. Time moves in circular motions; creation and destruction, beginning and end, life and death. They say reincarnation is a vicious cycle in which a soul endures vigorous trials and tribulations until it is eventually liberated from this world of birth and death.

Koh watches the humans in their struggle with amusement.

In the Spirit World, centuries can pass in the blink of an eye, but it is always the same here. Time moves forward with little deviation for the spirits that inhabit this land that has no fear or laws or death. No beginning or end.

He is, understandably, _bored._

But while he may always be trapped within his monstrous shell he _has_ found a way to use it to his advantage and provide considerable entertainment.

The humans come to him, lost and frightened, searching for wisdom or life, but they find only the insatiable hunger of the Face Stealer. There is nothing more beautiful then the look on the face of his prey as they gaze upon his horrendous form for the first time. The large expressive eyes widen impossibly, the color of their skin considerably pales, and the delicate lines of the mouth open slowly into a silent scream of terror. Koh's red lips curve into a satisfied smirk and the last thought of his victim is how the face of a human could look so completely devoid of warmth or mercy.

As his victim's face become his own, Koh knows that he is liberating the human from its purgatory and making his a little less monotonous.

- - -

**A/N: **This was written for the 7chakras community on LJ. How I'm going to write six more of these things is anyone's guess.


	2. Spider's Web

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. It owns me.

**SUBLIME**

superlazygirl

- - -

_2 – Spider's Web_

Deep in the heart of Won Shi Tong's library, a solitary soul handled the precious scrolls with the delicacy usually reserved for a newborn child. His soft exclamations of "ooh!" and "ah ha!" echoed within the ancient walls of the magnificent library. Every piece of literature, every piece of knowledge, made his heart twittered in his chest and it was like falling in love over and over again.

He came across a particularly old document. He carefully unrolled the fragile parchment and his hazel eyes scanned the faded calligraphy.

_In time immemorial, Koh was the keeper of knowledge and wisdom. His web helped spin the world into creation. _

_He is a cunning spirit and his scheming separated day from night and summer from winter. However, people would often make fun of his strange appearance and he would get revenge by playing tricks on them. Koh began to control others with his strings and learned how to separate a face from a body and a soul from its host. Because of his troublemaking, the Avatar forced Koh out of the human world._

Professor Zei's heart beat furiously in excitement at this new development. Even here, inside this house of knowledge, information on spirits was rare. He had spent countless hours trying to discover the nature of the spirit world in which he now resided, but the hunt was going less fruitfully then he would have liked.

But was that all to the story? Surely not! He dove back into his research, determined to find out more about this mysterious, dangerous creature.

In the roots of a timeless tree, Koh waits patiently until the day when he can once again spread his web across the human world.

- - -

**AN: **Eh. Not quite as pleased with this one as I am with the previous one. However, I have discovered that Professor Zei is quite possibly my alter ego.

Also, I'm drawing a lot of parallels to the spider-trickster Iktomi of Lakota mythology. Iktomi and Koh seem like they could have been drinking buddies back in the day.


	3. Clairvoyance

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. It owns me.

**SUBLIME**

superlazygirl

- - -

_3 – Clairvoyance; Supernatural_

Ummi was dressed in the traditional bridal attire of the Water Tribe and was just moments away from marrying the love of her life, but all she could think of was why no one had told her that the happiest day of her life would make her so nauseous. For the past few days, thoughts of her upcoming wedding had gone from sweet exhilaration to nervous anticipation to unexplainable dread. When she tried to voice her concerns to her mother she would dismissively wave them away. Nerves, her mother called it. It was just cold feet.

Ummi would toss and turn at night, her agitation keeping her up until she would finally fall into a fitful sleep in the early hours of the morning. She would dream of darkness, of something pulling her and touching her, whispering haunting words into her ear. But when Ummi awoke in the morning amongst her twisted bedsheets she could never remember what was said or where she was being lead.

Now, as several Water Tribe women wove flowers into her hair, she tried to suppress the growing fear inside her. Ummi's mother came and said it was time, chuckling when she saw her daughter's slight trembling. She cupped Ummi's face with her hands and smiled. "My dear, with your worried expression it looks more like you're attending an execution than your own wedding." She placed a quick peck on her cheek. "Don't be nervous. You look beautiful." As they walked to the Spirit Oasis her mother continued to give her encouragement. This was the day she would secure her own happiness and the happiness of her people.

Ummi walked carefully across the bridge towards the oasis, but it wasn't until she met Kuruk's eye and saw the look of joy on his face that all her fears floated away. His eyes were ageless and full of light and the love she had for him surfaced, making all her worrying seem silly. This is the man she loves, the man she is going to spend the rest of her life with.

No one is quite sure what happened next. Some witnesses said that she slipped and fell into the water, but others claimed that they saw her swept right off her feet as though some invisible hand had pulled her into the water.

Ummi was falling and she could hear the voice of Kuruk, but it was muffled and she couldn't make out the words as they got fainter and fainter. Suddenly, long spindle-like limbs wrapped around her. Not tight or painful, but _possessive_ like a child grabbing it's favorite toy.

A familiar voice rang clearly in her ear. "_You were right the first time._"

- - -

**A/N: **When I saw the Kuruk comic I was filled with glee at the revelations, but it also left me with SO MANY MORE QUESTIONS. One of which was why Koh stole Ummi in the first place and I came up with three possible scenarios:

**1**. She was very beautiful and as a collector Koh thought she would be a find addition to his stolen faces.  
**2**. Kuruk had previously wronged Koh somehow and taking Ummi was revenge. Or maybe Koh was just amused by Kuruk's boastful nature and took Ummi as a way of cashing in all of Kuruk's bad karma.  
**3**. SEKRIT LOVE TRIANGLE. KOH HAS THE HOTTS FOR UMMI AND OMG KOH/UMMI/KURUK IS MY NEW OT3!!!1!

Okay, so the last one is obviously not true, BUT I LIKE TO DREAM OKAY?


End file.
